Reflections and poems about life on the bayou

Celebrating Fall Chalk-a-bration

Ruth Ayres invites us the celebrate each week. Click over to her site Discover. Play. Build. to read more celebrations.

Fall is in the air…Whew Hoo! Morning temperatures almost require a jacket. Yesterday morning one of my students exclaimed, “It’s freezing!” I laughed. Because after daily temps in the 90’s, the 60’s feel like freezing.

The sugarcane is at its tallest. I drive to school through walls of tall sugarcane. Soon it will be harvested and the fields burned and the scent of sweet smoke will make fall-scented wind.

My students love the end of the month Chalkabration time. We pulled out the colorful fall colors and chalked poems. We had been discussing imagery in writing, so I was pleased to see imagery in their writing.

My husband and I love to dance. Thursday night we actually skipped our dance lesson to go dancing. One of our favorite bands was playing. The night was perfect. The crowd was amazed by the young rubboard player. She was incredible, dancing and playing along in beat with the band.

Chubby Carrier

A shout out to my blogging friend, Holly Mueller. She wrote about her students responding to Malala Yousafzai’s Nobel Peace Prize speech with a hashtag. We watched the speech this week. My students were enthralled. They created hashtags and wrote passionately about her influence.

My hashtag is #inspirational because Malala gives the best advice in my point of view. Here are some of my tough questions and the answers to them. My first question is ”Why should girls go to school?” This is a question that Malala asked. I would say that the answer to this question is: girls should go to school because they should be and hopefully will be treated like every one else in humanity!!! Why do they even need a reason to go to school???? WE GIRLS MATTER!!! –Lani

#TakeALeap

“We have already taken many steps. Now, it is time to take a leap.” Malala believes that we have a done a lot to fight for children’s right to education. She believes that this should be the last time to fight for education. Every child deserves this because we are the next generation in the world and we can’t make it great if we can’t simply go to school to learn. –Vannisa

There is so much to celebrate!!! I laughed when I read that 60s seems freezing! 🙂 Going dancing sounds like so much fun!!! AND I must read what Holly wrote about Malala! Thanks for such a celebratory post!! 🙂

I’m so glad temps have come down for you. We’re still waiting!
Everything you celebrate has such joy. I’ve never ever smelled sugar cane fields being burned, or heard a rubboard played live (especially by such a young talent). Thank you for always inspiring me.
PS maybe we’ll get to a Chalkbration this year!

We have had much cooler temperatures this week too! I loved it. It is amazing how much fun older kids can have with chalk. I have done this with 4th graders but not my 6th graders – might give it a try!

Margaret the celebrations this week were so varied and fun, especially the dancing event. I love to dance also and even watched a ballroom dancing event when we went on a mini-trip to Mohonk Mountain House. Now, I watch Dancing with the Stars for my shot of amazing dances. Your students’ Chalkabration about fall look like they will make great digital inspirations for Autumn’s Palette (especially since they are done in bright colors). Can you please ask the children if they would like to send at least one of them in and then have them send to cvarsalona@gmail.com? I hope they say yes.

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I live on the Bayou Teche in New Iberia, Louisiana. I love teaching, poetry, my dog Charlie, my three daughters, and dancing with my husband. This space is where I capture my thoughts, share my insights, and make connections with the world. Welcome! Walk in kindness.

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